Albino Witch

I think I might have mentioned before that I'm a fan of overhead lighting, or maybe it was in a video. I think it was in a video that I talked about how I liked that kind of lighting.

I have, however, an issue when it comes to drawing overhead lighting, because I like smooth degradation of shadows, it's hard for me to just draw from my head. The parts which should be really strong and crude puddles of shadow, like the eye sockets, under the nose and under the zygomatic arches, I haven't been able to bring myself to mark them enough. The time that I think I've been most successful at it, is when I drew the Ice Cream Heads, I had specific reference pictures for those and even then, it was still difficult to do what I had to do.
I like overhead lighting, because it really marks the valleys and mountains of the face. More frontal lighting seems to just flatten out features and it really is the kind of lighting that is seen for advertising or illustration or really graphic shit.
Stronger lighting is used, apparently, when "dark" things want to be conveyed.
I love being able to see the eyes covered by the brow bone, the nasolabial fold marking a path from the nose to the sides of the lips, the diagonal from the zygomatic arches to the top lip, the nose hovering farthest out from the face. It's a thing of beauty. Features are feared and so are wrinkles and anything, I think, that really marks a human face.

So, this drawing, which I've titled "Albino Witch", is meant to be top lit. It's understood that it's some kind of subtle overhead lighting, like she is coming out of some shadows. Her eyebrows and hair are meant to be platinum, like somebody with albinism and, in my mind, her eyes are an almost white light blue. The way that Goldie Hawn's eyes looked in "Death Becomes Her" towards the end of the movie.
The witch looks beyond us, she seems fascinated by what she has her eyes on, her lips are slightly separated.

are correct.

Shadows

I've been drawing self portraits on the train on the way back home, I draw what I see across from me in the reflection, since it's blurry and I have light above my head, this is what comes out and I seriously like what it looks like!
I also draw sometimes people that I see. My roommate and classmate Max Perkins is super good at that and I feel more confident drawing in general and I kind of feel influence and inspiration coming from seeing him do it.
The very first one was done with a bic pen and all the other ones are with a zebra pen.



I currently find myself studying in the New York Academy of Art, I'm going for a drawing major with concentration in anatomy. I'm on the fourth floor of the building, studio number seven. Do not hesitate to let me know if you want to buy something or set up a studio visit! Write to me: gabrielahandalarte@gmail.com
And also, don't forget my Facebook page, which you should like and share with your friends: Gabriela Handal Arte

Before and after

Today i finished a drawing that i titled "implied", basically because, at first, she was just a bunch of implied lines. When id'd first put the sketch down, i wasn't sure wether i was finished or not, then i decided to work more on her until today.

I used a bic pen, a zebra pen and some acrylic paint, and i worked on two pieces of reused paper, that i taped together. I made a little vignette for her just now and she's up on my studio entrace to show off!

Here you can see her when i put the sketch down and finished, i love seeing the comparisson!

Two faces

I finished these two drawings yesterday, using a bic pen over paper.
Right now, I find myself in a place with very dry air and I think that's something that has assisted me a little bit in achieving this smoothness.

For this first drawing, the words "Terráqueo Facial" work as a title of sorts. Looking at her there's something of a globe, with the landscapes and divisions, so her face reminds me of a globe.



This second one started out as a note for a dream that I remembered, it had none of the swirls, no facial features, no mouth, no nose. I just wanted to recreate the pose in the dream and something specific that was happening and once that was out of my head, I decided to make her into almost exactly what you see here, specially the swirly things on her hair.
To me, she's kind of an illustration of a story. Or like the when the first letter of a story that is very ornately illustrated and decorated, or a mixture of both.


Also, something of an update on my page in Facebook, I have now made the handle into this: www.facebook.com/ArteGabrielaHandal, so now it's even easier to share! So, don't you forget to like it and share it with your friends: Gabriela Handal Arte

Bic pen over paper

Back in the call center, I used to draw a ton in between calls or during calls, when I was doing the drawing classes, I´d draw something whilst the kids were doing whatever I´d assigned them and for a while now at the restaurant, I´ve been using the little papers where we write orders down to throw down little drawings.
I thought they´d look cute and elegant with a little carton frame and I framed the first couple ones that I did that night, put them up for sale at one dollar and they were gone before my shift was over.
I´ve been doing this for maybe a month now and I´ve found it very enjoyable and a sweet way to get some extra dough and get my work to circulate. Moreover, in the back, right smack in the middle, I put my card. Am I a fuckin´ genie at life or what?
The drawings have all been made with pen, most of them with a bic pen. And I´ve also been drawing a ton with bic pen.
I´ve also used Paper Mate and Pentel, my favorite one, though, is the bic, I think. The other two are kind of shiny in comparison when they dry.
EITHER WAY on to pictures of the drawings that I´ve been doing and some of them selling for ridiculous prices. I´ve got the objective of none of them going over ten dollars.
The middle picture is by the kids from Penniless From Panama, the picture is linked to their page in Facebook.
And this one here is one of the drawings that I´ve done not with the purpose of selling, only to show off, with a bic pen. It´s kind of a diptych, I guess, of Juan Diego Flórez as I drew him by parts, first drew his eye and the other side the lower half of his face and his hand. What a beautiful man.
I consider drawing a pretty portable method of producing work, but I´ve found the pen over paper even more portable. The pencil requires an eraser, a pencil sharpener (in my case, a fucking box cutter, ´cuz that´s what I use to sharpen my pencils), the kneading eraser, the mechanic erasers; with the pen and paper, I only need.. Well. A pen and paper.
So, I carry around my journal and several pens in my bag.
I´ve found myself missing drawing, so I´ve started a couple of drawings and I actually started one in the journal, but that will probably be a whole other blog entry.
Do remember to like my page in Facebook: Gabriela Handal Arte. Share it with your friends and invite/suggest it to your friends, ´cuz the more the merrier!!!

Three days

I rarely finish a piece in one day, even more rare is that I produce one piece for several days in a row. Last week, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, when I'm absolutely exhausted and destroyed after work, I produced these three pieces, one each day, respectively.
The three of them involve a Bic pen and paper, for the third one, I also used colored pencils. There is some sort of progression to them: The first one is abstract; the second one, involves an eye and mostly abstract; the third one is human figure and fantasy art.
I'd been having some sort of urgency, a couple of days prior, to take that drawing book and just take some sort of black medium and cover an entire page with something/nothing in particular and, on Friday, "Mandala" happened. If you click on them you get a bigger version.

"Mandala" is not a mandala by definition, but the word was all I thought of whilst drawing it and it was all I could think of when I saw/see it, so that's it title.
The mandala definitely had some meditativeness to it, whilst making it. All the lines and the flow there is to it, are sure to get me into a pensive mood.

This second one has no title and I'm almost certain it has some influence from a sketch that Andi Soto posted

And this last one is titled "Demons get all the girls", the Fantasy Art peeks it's head from time to time and, on Sunday, this dude just happened.
The demon, with his sly, careless and sharp face, really makes me smile, when I look at him.

I quite clearly see a progression in the drawings, each one if more complex than the next, it goes from no human figure, to some human figure, to human figure entirely.
So, yes, this happened over the end of last week.

Also, I'm participating in this collective, end of the year art exhibit by Casa Cultural Huellas (one of the organizers of the residency that I did this year): Celebra.Ciones. It opens on Saturday, 1st of December at two in the afternoon and it will be open to the public for a month. You should go and buy some of my work or the work of my colleagues, because we're extremely cool people.
And remember that I've got a Facebook page that you should like, it's the best place in which to keep up to date with my work and whatever I'm involved in artistically: Gabriela Handal Arte

Thanks a lot for reading and see you next time!